[PRCo] Re: GE

[Fred Schneider]

I don't remember any difference.  I've ridden perfectly set up GE cars on Shaker Heights Rapid Transit that were as good as a chopper controlled car today.  I vividly recall riding a three car special to a ball game back in the 1980s ... every single car was picking up and braking perfectly without any slack action whatsoever.   And the SHRT maintenance manager especially liked the GE cars because if he had a problem today in Cleveland, an engineer from GE in Erie would be there tomorrow to discuss it.  I
cannot remember any material difference in Pittsburgh.  Nor in  Baltimore.  And if someone tells you the GE cars in Philadelphia were worse, I would write that off to SEPTA (lack of) maintenance practices.

Remember that the PCC car specification was a "performance" spec.  The jerk limits, acceleration rates, and braking rates were specified.  Both Westinghouse and General Electric met or exceeded the specs.

The real problem here is listing to people tell you about equipment in the 1970s or 1980s.  Sadly few people are around who remembers how cars ran in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.

Pepa Kalousek wrote: